Big Nothing: From Con Man to Another

I was saving this piece for a later date. But I noticed I'd been negative for the last seven or so posts, and thought it was high time I stopped being such a miserable wretch and talked about media products I liked. So I am.

Big Nothing didn't cause much of a stir when it was released in 2006. Despite generally favorable reviews and starring the likes of Simon Pegg and David Schwimmer (and a young Alice Eve), it made only around $80,000 from a three million dollar budget. Why was it ignored? Why is it one of the most underrated films of the decade? Why is everyone in the film American, when it was produced and filmed in Britain?

That's nothing compared to the Jaffa Cakes he has in his back pocket.

The plot of this film is deviously beautiful. Three terrible con artists attempt to blackmail a vicar for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and just about everything goes wrong. There are plot twists, foreshadowing and a sickening sense of satisfaction as you watch all of these ridiculously horrific events unfold. It's like a perverse game of Cluedo, but without the colourful (literally) characters. It allows for multiple watchings, that give the viewer a sense of morbid superiority by knowing which characters are trustworthy and which aren't. 

The performances range from suitable to superb, with no character seeming out of place, or inserted to try and boost box office sales. Simon Pegg is slimy but lovable as Gus, David Schwimmer is more down to earth, if somewhat typecast, as Charlie, Alice Eve is perfect as the half naive, half evil Josie, and all the supporting characters play their parts as well as they could have. Big Nothing does not exaggerate its performances; nothing is camp, but at the same time, nothing is totally serious. It's supposed to be a black comedy, where the audience is forced to question themselves for laughing at the tragedies before them.

Where Big Nothing truly shines, however, is in the mirror it holds up to the average Joe. Unlike action films where an unsuspecting citizen is taken under the wing of a bad-ass, violent douchebag, Charlie never stops being innocent. he never becomes a heartless killer, even when he wants and tries to be. At the back of his mind, he's always thinking of his daughter. That's a far more powerful character than a wuss who's taught how to be cool. Essentially, Charlie represents the person we all should be in society, while Gus represents the man we want to be. Both characters have major pros and cons, and the film suggests that no matter how you try and be as a person, nothing is set in stone.

Big Nothing is a shit bust sweet Naughty Bear of a film, where you can't help but gain pleasure from the incompetence of the wannabe con men. It doesn't have the deepest plot in the world, and a couple of jokes fall flat, but it deserves better than the melancholy shrug it's receiving from movie fanatics today.

Seriously, it's probably like, two dollars on Amazon at the moment. Buy it, you'll enjoy it. Promise.